Revenge is bittersweet
by Livia Yoran
Summary: This is a story about Jedi Master Eeth Koth and his non-canon first padawan, Lakhri Tumuel. Lakhri is 14 y/o and has been Eeth's padawan for more than two years. He is human and growth-restricted. This story features corporal punishment (and rather severe one), so if this is not your cup of tea, don't read it. And just for the record, I don't advocate doing this to real children.


It was the third day of their mission to Xinthic III. By the time Eeth was returning from his usual after-dinner meeting with a group of diplomats, it was rather late. Lakhri, he saw as he entered their suite of rooms, was already dressed in his pajamas; he was lying on his back on the couch staring at the ceiling, and Eeth could immediately see that he was sulking.

„Hello, padawan," he said neutrally, hanging up his cloak.

„Hi," Lakhri grumbled, not moving from his position one inch.

Eeth crossed the rather large room that was part of their luxurious quarters in the Royal Palace of Thandenbreet. Sitting down on an armchair and starting to remove his boots, he inquired: „Did I give you any reason not to mind your manners towards me, padawan?"

Lakhri heaved a long-suffering sigh, rolled around and sat up.

„Good evening, master," he said clearly, politely and in a tone of voice that make it quite plain he was doing so because he was forced to, not because he felt like it.

„You know better than that, padawan," Eeth said mildly. „I do not think I am the one who annoyed you, so stop taking it out on me. We have been there before."

Lakhri knew Eeth was right. He needed to pull himself together, or he'd just end up in trouble for no good reason. Besides, Eeth really had done nothing to deserve his bad mood. He closed his eyes for a moment and tried to release at least some of his anger and frustration into the Force. It did not work too well, but it did calm him down a little.

„Sorry, master," he said, opening his eyes again, and this time, he sounded sincere. „You're right. I'm mad, but it's not your fault."

„Whose fault is it, then?" Eeth inquired.

Lakhri shrugged and pulled a face. „The usual suspect. The crown prince, of course. He finds me tremendously funny. Today, he and his sidekicks found me in the garden and would not leave me alone, no matter how hard I tried to ignore them."

„Nevertheless, ignoring him was the best you could do," Eeth pointed out. „Do not allow him to provoke you."

Lakhri sighed. „Why, though?" he asked. „It's not as if ignoring him will ever make him, or others like him, stop. So why should I?"

He entirely expected Eeth to give him the standard reply of „It is your duty as a Jedi padawan", but surprisingly, Eeth said instead: „Because he is unworthy of your attention. You should not lower yourself to his standard. You are better than that."

Lakhri thought about this for a moment.

„Master, that sounds good, but it's easy for you to say," he finally said. „I mean, you are tall and imposing. You have probably been born an authority figure. Me, on the other hand – no matter how dignified my reaction, I'll still be what I am and there will still be people who taunt me and laugh at me. No ignoring them will make me grow any taller. And believe me, they wouldn't stop even if I ignored them for ten years."

„I did not claim they would," Eeth replied a little more sternly. „But what is the alternative? What did you expect me to say? To give you permission to slice off the head of any person who offends you with a lightsaber, just because they are mean enough to taunt you about a condition you have not chosen? The truth is, nothing you do will change anything about the fact that some people will always make fun of you. Taking your revenge on them might make you feel better momentarily, but it will not end the problem. It will only take you down a very dangerous road. And that is a road I do not want you to follow."

„Awww, c'mon, master," Lakhri said, rolling his eyes. „Don't act as if I'm going to go over to the Dark Side, just because I can't bear hearing this stupid brat of a crown prince taunt me and saying nothing. That's entirely too melodramatic."

Eeth raised his eyebrows. „As you seem unwilling to accept my advice," he said calmly, „I have no problem making it an order. That might save you the dilemma of pondering what to do about the crown prince. I herewith forbid you to antagonise any member of the royal family, no matter what the provocation. Is that clear?"

Lakhri scowled. „Crystal," he snapped. „That's so like you! If you can't solve a problem, order it to go away. Did you know you can be a right bully?"

„Of course I did," Eeth replied coolly. „This is a mission, after all. We want to conclude a treaty and the royal family's consent is essential. I cannot allow you to jeopardise the success of this mission, and if I need to issue orders to prevent this, I will issue orders. Call it bullying if you like, but mind my instructions or there will be serious consequences."

Lakhri was silent for a moment.

„I'm going to bed," he finally said curtly. „Good night, master."

„Good night, padawan," Eeth said mildly. „May the Force be with you."

Lakhri stopped on his way to his room and bit his lip. Eeth had been unusually lenient with him, and he did not really want to end the evening on this note, not when Eeth had so clearly tried to talk to him and be understanding. It was not his master's fault that there was no easy solution, after all.

Turning around, he said: „And with you, master. I'll try to heed your advice. And your orders, even. I'm just not sure I'll manage. I managed today, barely. But my temper sometimes gets the better of me."

„I know that," Eeth replied, giving him a small smile. „And even if you don't appreciate it, I'm giving you an incentive to control it. It is imperative for our mission that you do so, but it is also important for yourself. You won't be able to grow if you cannot stop yourself from holding on to grudges."

Lakhri knew that his master was right. He was also thankful that the man had taken a moment to explain that this was not merely about the success of their mission, but about him. Still, that did not mean he liked it.

„I'll just be glad when this is over," he said with a sigh. Unfortunately, they had only just started; they still had twelve days to go.

The next day was even worse than the one before. It was not so much something specific the crown prince and his buddies did, it was more the steady stream of snickering, whispering and laughing, with looks directed at him, and the continuous utterance of comments that contained the words "small" or "little" which, again, the prince and his friends found incredibly funny. They were even younger than Lakhri, but thought themselves far superior. Lakhri managed to refrain from snapping at the prince, but only barely so, and only because Eeth was at his side all the time. He was immensely glad when the delegates decided on a one-day break that evening and Eeth immediately decreed the two of them were to spend it far from the palace, on a nature ramble that Lakhri could turn into a biology project. Lakhri was used to Eeth filling all their free time with educational stuff, so he did not mind. He had not expected Eeth to jump over his shadow and take him to an amusement park; instead, he was glad that his master had not chosen to make him sit in his room and do school work all day – which had been known to happen, especially in the first year or so of his apprenticeship. Eeth had actually softened a little since, even though the difference was almost indiscernible to outsiders. In fact, Lakhri suspected that Eeth was taking him away from the palace on purpose so he could put some distance between himself and the prince, and that suited him just fine. He was positively grateful to Eeth for it. Besides, the planet was beautiful and exploring its environment was going to be fun even if it served educational purposes.

They spent the morning hiking through the wooded hills. The weather was sunny, but not too hot, there was a light breeze, and Lakhri was enjoying himself more than he had in a long time. He collected a lot of specimen of plants and took holopictures of animals, and he had animated discussions with Eeth about the properties of these plants and animals, the specificities of this planet's environment and the species Eeth had encountered on other planets. It was rare for Eeth to be as relaxed as he was today, and it helped Lakhri to completely forget about the crown prince and his gang for the time being.

Around lunchtime, they sat down at a brook to have a picnic. Lakhri devoured a round dozen sandwiches and looked for more. He shook the empty bag vigorously in order to find out whether it contained some hidden remnants of food, but was disappointed.

„Aww, c'mon, master," he complained, „don't tell me you've eaten all the rest? How greedy is that?

Eeth's eyebrows rose so high they nearly reached his hairline, but before he could say something, Lakhri had broken out laughing.

„I was just joking," he said with a grin. „I know I ate twice as much as you did. I'm lucky I packed some fruit from our fruit bowl this morning while you were in the shower."

Eeth could not help but return the smile. He would never have known how to express this (and saw no real reason to), but he had grown very fond of Lakhri's cheerful, and at times cheeky, disposition and his quick wit. His former master had told him that since he had dropped the silly notion of having to be a full-time disciplinarian, she had seen him smile more often than in the ten years of his padawanhood put together (which, admittedly, was not saying much). Once or twice, he had even found himself laughing out loud at some comment his padawan had made, and that was highly uncharacteristic of him.

Lakhri emptied the contents of his backpack onto the grass; rather than having packed "some" fruit, he seemed to have taken the entire contents of the fruit bowl! Eeth helped himself to a crisp, refreshing chung fruit, then went to sit at the creek and examine its plants. Lakhri came to join him; together, they discovered a weird, flesh-eating plant that devoured insects and studied it for a while. Then Lakhri heard a croaking sound and followed it. He discovered a large number of purple frogs populating a shallow pool under a rocky ledge. Before he could pick one up, however, Eeth had put a restraining hand on his shoulder and warned him: "Don't touch them. They are poisonous, and despite their nice looks, they are the most dangerous species on this continent. They are everywhere, even in the cities. When the weather is too hot for their liking, they even enter houses. Humanoid reactions to skin contact vary from a skin rash to a strong allergic shock. Before an antidote was discovered, exposure to their poison was deadly on occasion. Even with the antidote, it's no laughing matter."

"Whoa," said Lakhri, quickly withdrawing his hand. "What a pity. They look nice."

"Yes, well, their color is their way to signal to big fish, carnivorous birds and predators to leave them alone," Eeth replied. "To humanoids, unfortunately, they really are a pest. The planet's government has tried to reduce their numbers, especially near inhabited areas. I suppose that's why we haven't got to see any so far. But there was a warning in our mission file."

"Oh well," said Lakhri with a sigh of resignation. Now that he thought of it, there had been something of the kind in their mission file. Maybe he should read these things more carefully; but then, he could always rely on his master to have memorised every stupid detail! He shrugged, stuffed another piece of fruit into his mouth and rose from the creek. A minute later, they were on their way again.

They had just left the woods and were climbing down a rocky hillside towards a large pond when suddenly a loud roar filled the air and a couple of speederbikes came zooming towards them. Lakhri had a bad feeling about this; and that feeling was confirmed when he heard the crown prince's unmistakeable, obnoxious voice yell: "Look who's there! Shorty and his nanny!"

His cheeks flushed red with annoyance, and he might have yelled something back that would definitely have served to "antagonise" the prince, as Eeth had put it, had his master not put a restraining hand on his arm and sent him a silent warning through their bond. So Lakhri remained silent while the prince and his friend circled them.

"Hey, shall we give you a lift?" the prince's friend called. "Or how are you planning on getting back up that hill on those stumps?"

"He won't. His master's gonna carry him, you'll see!" the prince yelled, and both roared with laughter at their own wit.

They left after a few minutes, having exhausted their repertoire of funny remarks, but it had effectively ruined the day for Lakhri. He remained silent and moody for the rest of the afternoon, giving monosyllabic answers to Eeth's questions and listlessly taking a few more random samples and pictures. Eeth finally decided to take him back to the castle; but it was indeed a rather long hike for Lakhri's short legs, and they had to take a break at the small brook because his legs hurt so much he could not walk any further. This did not exactly improve his mood. He was well able to use Force-enhanced speed, but the way back to the castle was far too long for this to help him much. He thought that if there was any chance for him to have his way (and there wasn't), he'd just stay in his room for the rest of the mission. He hated the planet, the royal family, and most of all the stupid prince.

He lay down on his stomach, looking at the gurgling creek without really seeing anything. Eeth had excused himself a moment ago and disappeared into the bushes. Suddenly, a purple frog hopped up right in front of Lakhri's face. He shrank back, not wanting to come into contact with the poison. All of a sudden, a plan formed in his head. It was not a nice plan; it was definitely not a plan that a Jedi padawan ought to go along with, and it sure as hell was a plan that would buy him a world-class punishment if Eeth caught him out. And yet, the idea was immensely satisfying, plus, if it succeeded, it would almost certainly provide him with a few prince-free days.

There was not much time to dwell on the issue; Eeth could be back any moment. Lakhri made a quick decision. When Eeth returned, several of the specimen jars in his padawan's backpack were filled with poisonous frogs. After all, Lakhri reasoned, having caught the frogs did not mean he had to use them. But it opened up an option, and that was much preferable to the feeling of utter helplessness he had been enduring for the past days.

They had dinner with the royal family and the delegates. Lakhri rejoiced when he saw that the prince and his best friend – who was a cousin of some sort and always with him, even during the negotiations – were not present. However, to his disappointment, both boys entered the banquet hall just before the second course was served, rowdy and self-assured. Lakhri could just about imagine how Eeth would react if he dared to come late to an official dinner and not even offer an apology, but apparently, nobody seemed to mind when the prince did.

"How come he gets to be late and I don't?" he murmured towards Eeth.

"Just because he is allowed to grow into a perfectly detestable person does not mean I have the same goals for you," Eeth replied calmly. "Let it go, padawan. He's not worth it."

The person who was not worth it was busy tucking into his food for a while, but when a pause between the courses occurred, he and his friend started on Lakhri again, giving him furtive looks, pointing, whispering and giggling. It was like a constant itch that Lakhri was not allowed to scratch: not actually harmful, but nevertheless completely unbearable.

When he and Eeth finally had finished dessert and rose to get up from the table, the prince happened to pass by his chair. He saw the pillow that Lakhri had been given to sit on and whooped in delight.

"Hey, Ranja, see this?" he yelled, snatching the pillow and waving it around. "Shall we get the li'l guy a highchair? Hey, baby Jedi, do you need a bib as well? Does your master feed you? Do you get a bottle when he tucks you in?"

Before Lakhri had a chance to fling himself at the crown prince and give him what for, Eeth had swiftly and deliberately put his broad frame between his padawan and the other boy.

"My padawan is fourteen years old, Your Highness," he said in a cold voice. "I thank you for your concern, but the days when he needed a bottle are long gone." The look he gave the prince to accompany his words apparently left some impression, for the boy wordlessly backed off and left with his friend – but not without making a rude gesture at Lakhri behind Eeth's back.

"How come you get to antagonise him, but I don't?" Lakhri asked hotly as they made their way back to their quarters.

"Because I am confident in my ability to address him in a way that will not offend his family," Eeth replied matter-of-factly. "I cannot say I have the same confidence in you in this regard. You still have a lot to learn about controlling both your tongue and your temper."

Lakhri knew, in theory, that this was true. Nevertheless, it only made him angrier. By this point, he was just about determined to go through with his plan.

When they returned home, he retired to his room wordlessly, appearing to sulk. Eeth was used to such reactions, so he did not become suspicious. After ten minutes had passed, just as Lakhri had expected, he knocked on his padawan's door. After all, there had been some informal diplomatic meeting every single night so far, and today was no exception.

"Padawan, I am going to go and meet with the king to discuss tomorrow's negotiations," Eeth told Lakhri. "The crown prince will most likely be present, too. You can come if you like, but for once, you have my permission to stay home if you prefer it that way."

This was even better than Lakhri had hoped for. Not only was Eeth going to be gone for quite a while, but the crown prince was not going to be home either.

"I'd really prefer not to come," he told Eeth sincerely and gratefully. "I desperately need a break from his royal brattiness for a few hours, or I know I won't be able to control myself."

"That's what I thought," Eeth replied drily. "Please meditate some. You need to deal with your emotions or they are going to eat you up."

Lakhri had other plans to deal with his emotions – far more satisfying ones, in fact. But of course, he did not say so. He merely said politely: "Yes, master. I will. May the Force be with you."

Eeth was a little preoccupied with the upcoming talks, or he might have noticed that Lakhri had lost his sulk more quickly than usual. As it was, he put it on Lakhri's relief over not having to see any more of the crown prince tonight. Glad that he had, for once, been able to help his padawan a little, he left.

Lakhri lost no time. While only selected visitors were admitted to the palace, no area within the palace grounds was monitored or particularly heavily guarded; the planet was a peaceful one, and there was not much to fear. Before he left, though, he spent some thought on how to make the frogs stay in the prince's bed where he intended to put them. After a brief search on the terminal, he had found out that the frogs loved a special type of worm more than anything else. Armed with his specimen jars of frogs and a few more empty jars, he made his way to a pond in the palace gardens where he dug up a sufficient number of worms from the mud and put them into the empty jars, together with a little muddy water to keep them alive. Then he slowly crept towards the prince's suite. He was not yet perfect at cloaking his presence with the Force, but he was quite good already. Force work had always been his strength. It would take an unusually alert and attentive non-Force-sensitive person to detect his presence, and there were none of those around tonight.

Half an hour later, he was back in the quarters he shared with Eeth and took a shower, revelling in the flow of warm water (which helped both clean away the mud and soothe his aching legs) and the knowledge that half a dozen frogs were sitting in the prince's bedsheets, hopefully feasting on worms and being additionally attracted to the place by a light Force compulsion. Whether that part was going to work, Lakhri had no idea; he was not good at working with animals, but he knew the basics of Force compulsions and had decided to just give it a try. In any case, the prince's bedsheets had been both messy and, conveniently, red; there was a good chance that he was not going to see the frogs if he did not pay attention.

After having finished his shower, Lakhri dutifully meditated like Eeth had told him to, and he found it fairly easy to let go of his frustration now (although, truth be told, that was not primarily a result of his wonderful meditation skills).

He was already in bed reading by the time Eeth came back from his meeting. Eeth was glad that his padawan seemed to have found back his balance. He wished him a good night and went to do his own meditation.

Lakhri had a hard time falling asleep. He kept wondering whether his plan was going to work out; there was so much that could go wrong. If the prince did indeed come into contact with the frogs and Eeth heard about the whole thing, he would almost certainly make the connection to Lakhri, but that could not be helped. Lakhri could only hope that Eeth would NOT hear about it. After all, the royal family was quite distant and did not encourage personal relationships. The same was true for Eeth. Thus, it was entirely conceivable that the crown prince would merely fail to attend the negotations for a few days, or appear there with a skin rash, without anyone providing details.

After a long period of tossing, turning and thinking, Lakhri was finally getting sleepy when there was suddenly a hard rap at his door.

"Huh?" he said sleepily, and: "Come in!" he called when he realised that this was probably his master. As soon as he saw Eeth's face, he knew that there was trouble.

"I just received a comm call," Eeth said in a tight voice. "The start of tomorrow's session will be postponed because the crown prince suffered a life-threatening allergic reaction. Now, what I find curious is that he had this reaction to the same frogs we talked about this afternoon, and he found them in his bed, of all places. Would you happen to have any idea how they got there? They most certainly have not climbed in through the window."

Lakhri stared at him, wide-eyed, and all the shielding in the world would not have been able to hide the dread he started to feel.

"A – a – life-threatening reaction?" he stammered. True, his master had mentioned something along these lines, but as he had also mentioned an antidote, Lakhri had not spent a second thought on it. Had not cared to spent a second thought on it, in fact! He had never really imagined the crown prince would develop more than an irritating skin rash and had conveniently neglected to think this through any more than necessary beyond the point where the frogs were in place.

"A life-threatening reaction," Eeth confirmed icily. "And you have not answered my question. Do you or do you not have anything to do with it? A simple 'yes' or 'no' will suffice."

Lakhri gulped. There was no way he could lie to his master's face. Apart from the fact that he was generally an honest person, he was never in a million years going to get away with it.

"Yes," he whispered, wishing for all the world a hole would open up in the floor and swallow him. The floor, unfortunately, did not do him any such favors.

"I see," said Eeth in a voice of controlled fury. "So you thought because the crown prince was making fun of you, it would be a good idea to try and kill him?"

"Master, I did not try to kill him!" Lakhri protested. "I merely wanted to, to…" He was suddenly at a loss for words, and that did not happen often. What, exactly, was it that he had meant to do? In hindsight, he was not sure, but in any case, his great plan suddenly did not seem all that great any longer.

"To poison him?" Eeth asked acidly. "Because these are poisonous frogs, as I know you are well aware."

Lakhri felt his mental defences kicking in, as they often did when he was cornered. He was not going to allow Eeth to take him on a guilt trip quite that easily in this state.

"Yes," he replied rather belligerently. "I was also aware that there's an antidote. Apparently, he received it, so what's the big deal?"

Eeth was not impressed with that answer. Instead of dignifying it with a response, he pinched his fingers around Lakhri's ear in a vice-like grip and pulled the boy into the common room.

"Ouch!" yelled Lakhri. "Let me go, this hurts!"

"I know," Eeth snapped. "I also know this is going to be the least of your worries in just a moment. Believe me, before this is over, you will have had ample opportunity to reflect on why exactly this is such a big deal, and most of that reflection will be done on an extremely sore bottom."

He deposited his padawan next to the couch and bent him over the armrest, pushing him forward until his bottom was sticking up as high as it possibly could and his feet were dangling in the air.

While pulling down Lakhri's pajama pants, he said in a voice that sounded sterner than any Lakhri had ever heard from him (and that was saying something!): "This is not the first time you have indulged your vindictive streak, but if I have any say in it, this is going to be the last. Apparently, the punishments you have received so far have not left enough of an impression. I plan to remedy that."

Despite his awkward position, Lakhri snorted. "As if any punishment you have ever meted out has failed to leave an impression," he said sarcastically. "What are you going to do to outperform yourself, beat me to death?"

He was rewarded with a swat to his bottom that was so loud it practically rang off the wall. He yelped and jumped a little, unbidden tears stinging his eyelids.

"You are the one who risked causing someone's death tonight, not me," Eeth hissed. "I am most certainly not going to kill you, but I will make very sure you are as unhappy as a padawan can possibly be until you have learned your lesson. Now I don't want to hear another word out of you. Stay still and think about what you have done to have ended up in this position until I return."

Lakhri's bottom was smarting fiercely from that one swat, and he did not have the nerve to rouse Eeth's wrath any further (if that was even possible). As was often the case, the main purpose of his belligerence was to distract himself from any guilt he might feel over what he had done. However, given the fact that apparently the crown prince had nearly died, which had never been his intention, he had a hard time following through with this strategy. Maybe he deserved to be in this position, after all – even if he dreaded, really dreaded, what Eeth was going to do. Force knew some of the punishments he had received from the man had been horrifying enough; he had no idea how his master planned on further enhancing that effect.

Much as Eeth was a perfectionist where discipline (and anything else, for that matter) was concerned, he did not usually take canes and other implements of torture – with the exception of his small paddle – on missions. In his experience, belts, switches or hotel slippers, whatever happened to be available, could be used in just as painful ways, even if they lacked the symbolic quality he had assigned to the cane. From the two-and-a-half years of experience he had gained with his padawan, he knew that Lakhri hated being switched above everything else, and it was for that reason that he strode into the nearest garden and cut four sturdy, long and supple switches. He took his time because another thing he knew from experience was that Lakhri could only maintain his belligerence for so long when he actually had reason to feel guilty.

Said padawan was spending a very uncomfortable ten minutes; uncomfortable not so much in position (the couch was soft, and his head was resting on a cushion which was only marginally lower than his back) but with respect to the thoughts that were going through his head. Considering that he had apparently done serious harm to a person for no good reason (and really, he was not dumb enough to think that the prince's obnoxious behavior had been a good reason), he found it hard to maintain the attitude he had previously exposed. Besides, fear of what his punishment was going to be like was currently competing with his pathetic attempt at belligerence and was effortlessly coming out first in that competition. He had been right about one thing: Eeth had yet to fail in delivering punishments that left an impression. But this – his stomach churned at the thought – was easily the worst thing he had ever done. This was no silly prank; he had caused someone to be ill, even life-threateningly ill. What was more, it was a repeat offence, AND he had been warned about it, several times. And all that after Eeth had practically gone out of his way to make this mission a little more bearable for him! No, Lakhri thought, there was no denying it, he was dead meat. A few more unbidden tears crept from his eyelids.

Unfortunately for Lakhri, he had a full view of Eeth as his master stepped back into their quarters, and what he saw did not help his apprehension any. If there was a single punishment he hated more than anything else, it was a switching, and it seemed that that was exactly what was to go down. What was worse, Eeth was not carrying one switch, but a several of them. Lakhri had no idea if he planned on using them individually or all at once, but he seriously doubted whether anything would be left of his bottom when Eeth was done in any case.

At seeing Lakhri's horrified look, Eeth nearly felt sorry for his padawan. Nearly. It sufficed to remind himself of the fact that the crown prince was still in a coma in order to regain all his resolve.

"Padawan, you did not want to believe me that your temper and your strong desire to get your own back will lead you down a path that might end you up on the Dark Side, eventually," he said sharply, making his way to the couch and taking up a position behind his padawan's upturned bare behind. "Tonight, however, you came dangerously close to this. I told you how serious the consequences of touching these frogs could be, but you obviously did not care where the prince was concerned. Luckily, the palace healer was on duty and had large stock of antidote at hand. Nevertheless, the prince will be out cold for at least a day and confined to his bed for a quite a while. Now, before you feel tempted to gloat, I will do my utmost to discourage any such notions."

"Master, I won't gloat! I – YEOOOOOW!" Lakhri's last-minute attempt at damage control was entirely unsuccessful. Eeth had unceremoniously raised the full bundle of switches and brought it down across his bottom, and that had been the single most painful thing Lakhri had ever experienced. It felt as if not one, but ten swarms of bees had stung his bottom all at once. He had always hated switchings with a passion, but this surpassed everything he had ever experienced. He howled and kicked his legs and howled some more when Eeth continued his assault on his bottom, but it was entirely futile. After a mere half dozen swats, he broke down, reduced to lying limply over the armrest and sobbing his heart out. Which did not prevent Eeth from completing the dozen.

Lakhri did not think he had ever been in this much pain. He cried and cried and cried; he blew his nose into a handkerchief Eeth had handed him and then went on to cry and cry and cry. The burning pain that extended over his entire bottom and his upper thighs halfway down to his knees did not seem to recede at all; it simply continued burning relentlessly. Nevertheless, Eeth picked him up after a few minutes and put him onto his feet.

"Now, you are going to write an essay on what you did that was wrong, why it was wrong and what you will do to prevent it from ever happening again," he sternly informed his crying apprentice. "I will not offer any healing before the result is satisfactory, so I suggest you pull yourself together and do a good job. When you are done, I am going to outline the rest of your punishment to you."

The REST of his punishment? Lakhri's sobs only increased in intensity at hearing this. On some level, he was acutely embarrassed; he was fourteen years old, and here he was crying like a baby and apparently unable to stop himself. But he could not help it, his bottom simply hurt too much, and the realisation that this was far from over only added to his despair.

Completely unfazed by his padawan's tears – for in his opinion, Lakhri deserved everything he had received – Eeth took hold of his apprentice's shoulder and steered him towards a small desk in the corner of the room where a writing pad and – Eeth having been ever so thoughtful – a box of tissues lay ready.

"I don't suppose you will want to sit," Eeth said severely, "but whether you choose to stand or kneel, you will get started now."

Lakhri nodded mutely, wiping the tears from his eyes with his sleeve and blowing his nose, and clambered onto the chair, bare bottom and all. Every movement hurt, and there was no way he was pulling up his pants.

The next hour or so was probably the second most horrifying in his life (the switching itself having been number one, at least from his current point of view). His bottom hurt as it had never hurt before, and his guilty conscience was weighing on him more and more heavily the more he was forced to reflect his misdeeds. The knowledge that Eeth was supremely mad at him and that more punishment was to follow did not help at all, and besides all that, it was already quite late and he was really starting to get tired. Nevertheless, he had no choice but to do what Eeth had told him to do, and that was to pull himself together somehow, no matter how miserable he felt, and to write that essay.

Fortunately, he was a fairly skilled writer. Being determined not to mess up any further, and with a huge effort, he managed to produce a result that he hoped Eeth would find satisfactory.

It must be nearing midnight by the time he had finished. Standing in front of his master, shifting from foot to foot in a futile attempt to alleviate the impossible sting, he waited for Eeth to finish reading, hoping with all his might that his essay was both detailed and contrite enough for his demanding master.

"Very well," Eeth finally said, putting the data pad on the table. "We will take that as a starting point. From now on, for the entire remainder of this mission, you will do one additional hour of meditation every night on a specific aspect of your misconduct that I will select. Afterwards, you will write a hundred lines with a related content that I will specify. And you will do all of that on a sore bottom because you will receive a spanking every night right after dinner just so you don't forget what kind of behavior I expect from my padawan. That spanking will be with my paddle, unless you choose to misbehave in any way during the day, in which case you will get to cut a switch. Oh, and one more thing. The royal family do not seem to have any suspicions regarding your involvement, and it is imperative for our mission that it stays that way. Nobody except for the two of us is to know that you are being punished. Am I making myself clear, or do you have questions?"

By now, Lakhri's jaw had nearly dropped to the floor. He had received extended punishments before, twice perhaps or maybe three times, at most. Those had been bad enough, but none of them had been longer than a week, none of them had ever involved something as childish as writing lines, and the nightly spankings had always been hand spankings. The threat of a switching had never been mentioned either. Eeth had been true to his word; this punishment surpassed everything he had ever received from his master.

His head hanging, Lakhri croaked: "Clear, master. May I go to bed now?"

He needed pull his blanket over his head and have a good long cry, and he did not want Eeth watching.

"No. First, you may give me your lightsaber," Eeth replied calmly, but very firmly, holding out his hand. "I will give it back to you when I am convinced that you have learned from this, not before."

That was too much. To Lakhri's horror, the tears started to flow again. Much as he wanted to simply run and hide, he knew that there was no way he could disobey his master in this. Trying and failing to regain his composure, he unclipped his lightsaber from his belt and handed it to his master with a trembling hand.

"May I go to bed NOW?" he choked out. He was not trying to be disrespectful, but he was both in pain and intensely embarrassed – or perhaps "mortified" was a more apt expression. He had yet to see his master lose his composure, so losing his own composure in front of the man was something that he did not relish at all, although unfortunately it happened more often than he liked.

Eeth raised his eyebrows.

"I hardly think you will be able to sleep without some amount of healing," he replied. "Besides, while I definitely won't be able or willing to take all the sting away, I want you to be able to sit without wriggling by tomorrow, or someone might catch up with the fact that you have been punished and become suspicious. Fortunately for us, the conference sessions will only start at eleven due to the prince's unexpected illness."

He pointed at the couch.

"Lie down on your stomach," he ordered. "When I have tended to your bottom, you may go to bed."

The following ten days were among the most miserable in Lakhri's life. Somehow his punishment was made a million times worse by the growing realisation that he actually deserved it. True, Eeth accepted the contrite apology his padawan offered him in the following morning with good grace, and he did not seem to hold a grudge; he even provided some amount of emotional support from time to time. But despite all that, he was relentless in the application of the punishment he had promised Lakhri. Every night after dinner, no matter what other appointments he had, he took the time to paddle Lakhri thoroughly until the boy's bottom was smarting fiercely and he was in tears. Then, Lakhri had to meditate on themes like "self-control" and "forgiveness" and had to report to Eeth about his findings afterwards. And the rest of the evening was spent writing endless columns of lines like "I will not try to take revenge on others" or "I will not cause avoidable harm to fellow beings". Before he went to bed, Eeth always offered some amount of healing, but it was never enough to take away all the sting.

Once, his countenance slipped at something the prince's buddies had said, and on that night, Eeth did not hesitate to take a switch to him. The endless series of spankings, meditations and lines all served to drive one point home: That Lakhri had really and truly messed up worse than ever before.

He also realised something else: For the first time in his padawanhood, he was really determined to avoid a repeat occurrence at all cost. Never, he swore to himself, was he going to risk being caught by his master in an act of revenge again, no matter how foolproof his plans might to seem. The consequences were not worth it; neither was the guilt he felt over having done something this recklessly dangerous. He would like to think of himself as someone who was both better and smarter than that. He had not only failed Eeth and their mission, but also himself, and that realisation shamed him deeply. It also made him accept his punishment to a degree that was unusual in Lakhri, who had a stubborn streek and could be remarkably defiant at times.

"Thank the Force this mission is over – well, nearly over," Lakhri said with a heartfelt sigh as he gingerly lowered his bottom onto the seat next to Eeth's in the starship's cockpit. They had got into an argument last night because Lakhri had tried to convince Eeth that the mission had been concluded with the final banquet and therefore his period of punishment was over. Furthermore, he claimed, there was no point in reminding him to behave that night because the only thing they would be doing in the next morning was to enter a starship and fly home. Eeth, however, had not bought that argument. According to him, a mission was only complete with their return to Coruscant, and Lakhri could count himself lucky that this meant no more than half a day's travel. Lakhri had insisted a little too vehemently on his point of view, with the result that he had been marched into the next garden and made to cut a switch which had then been applied to his bare bottom quite vigorously. Consequently, he did not find sitting down all too comfortable. Amazingly enough, though, he did not feel like sulking. Maybe he was too relieved that this nightmare was over, or maybe this punishment had actually been an eye-opener about his own behavior that he gradually came to be thankful for on some level.

While Eeth fired up the engines, he said: "Padawan, I would like you to know that despite the trouble you got yourself into last night, I was proud of your comportment during the banquet."

Lakhri looked at him in surprise. The crown prince, still looking a little pale and drawn, but mostly recovered, had been present, and he had resumed his taunts at once. Lakhri had made much more of an effort than ever before to ignore him. He had tried hard to tell himself that this kind of reaction did not amount to passive helplessness, but was an active decision on his part, a real accomplishment. To his own surprise, this had indeed given him a certain sense of satisfaction. He just had not thought that Eeth, who had been required to talk to royals and delegates all night, had noticed.

"Uh – thank you, master," he said.

Eeth turned away from the console to look at Lakhri and give him a smile. Lakhri realised with a jolt that this had been the first smile he had seen in his master since the day of the nature ramble.

"You behaved like a young Jedi," Eeth told him. "Like the Jedi you want to be. Hopefully you see now that you are able to if only you stop trying and DO it."

"Spoken like Master Yoda," Lakhri said with a yawn. More seriously, he added: "And yes, you are right. I have always promised you to try and do better, but I never REALLY had the will to get rid of my vindictive streak. Now I do. I realise I could have killed the prince, even if the odds were rather low, and I would never have wanted that to happen. I will not do anything like this again, ever. This time, I won't just try. I won't do it any more, period."

"i am exceedingly glad to hear that," said Eeth gently. "And I have full confidence that you will succeed."

Lakhri could not suppress the broad grin that lit his face at hearing this statement.

"The master who has full confidence in me would not, by any chance, happen to have something to eat?" he inquired hopefully. "After all, it's been ages since we've had breakfast."

"Nearly two hours, you mean," Eeth said drily. "The horror."

He made some corrections to the navigation and launched the ship into hyperspace. As the familiar lines of stars lit up, he rose from his seat, went to retrieve his bag, rummaged around a bit and wordlessly pressed a huge slab of chocolate into Lakhri's hand. Then he hastily sat back down, pretending to fiddle with the controls.

The grin on Lakhri's face broadened. Eeth was always going to be Eeth, but that was fine with him as long as he managed to be a little less so in moments like these.

"Thank you, master," he said brightly and started munching his chocolate.


End file.
